February 4, 2012

Please Help Sadie Rose Clifford Appeal!

Sadie Rose is 2 years old and fighting high risk neuroblastoma!

Neuroblastoma is a very aggressive kind of cancer that mainly affects little children and babies like.

On 8th August 2009 our beautiful daughter Sadie Rose was born, weighing a very healthy 8lbs 6oz. But in October 2010 aged just 14 months old Sadie Rose was diagnosed with a childhood Cancer called Neuroblastoma.

Sadie has survived front line treatment here in the UK, which has included an initial 70 days of Chemotherapy in November 2010, major surgery in February 2011 to remove her tumour which was located above her left kidney and wrapped around the main artery in the body, her Aorta. This was a life threatening operation but she came out fighting and was home after just over a week in hospital. Sadie recovered amazingly well.

In March 2011 Sadie then had an intensive course of High Dose Chemotherapy to prepare her body for her Stem Cell Transplant. Sadie had her own Stem Cells given back. Unfortunately as a side effect from her High Dose Chemotherapy she developed a very serious and potentially life threatening disease of her Liver, called Veno Occlusive Disease (V.O.D). This caused her tummy to swell and she gained over 2kg in just a few days, this was due to fluid being retained. The disease took over Sadie's body entirely and she ended up on Oxygen 24hrs a day. The Intensive Care Team came to see Sadie and had told us that they would expect to see her in ICU by the weekend. Our consultant had prepared us for the worst. This was the hardest part of our journey so far.

However Sadie pulled through and was discharged from Leeds General Infirmary after 8 weeks.

Sadie had 3 weeks of radiotherapy in June. This seemed to go very well, so much so she didn't want to leave!!! However in July, Sadie started Immunotherapy which didn't go according to plan......and after just 2 weeks Sadie suffered a seizure and after an emergency CT Scan the specialist Neurosurgeons discovered a tumour on the right side of her tiny brain. The next day a 4 hour operation to remove the tumour was carried out, and sent to the lab for tests. Which showed that the tumour was in fact Cancerous. The Neuroblastoma had grown......yet again!!

Since July Sadie endured yet more gruelling Chemotherapy and after an MRI scan at the end of the 6 week course of treatment to destroy any microscopic cells. Results showed the tumour had in fact grown again.

In November Sadie Rose started radiotherapy. The last stage in the treatment plan is a course of 8H9 Thearpy.

Sadie and her family need all the support they can get, please help them by getting involved in any way you can. Here are some ways the family has set up for fund raising.

There is a fund to help with costs of life saving treatment in America at

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

The price for this treatment is £500,000!!!!!

Please help give Sadie the lifeline she desperately needs and deserves.